1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the field of electronic musical instruments and in particular, electronic musical instruments including stringed electronic musical instruments.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electronic stringed instruments are well known to the art and are experiencing an increasing acceptability both among performers and listeners. However, the construction and design of such electronic stringed instruments have been of such a nature and complexity that instruments of such quality have remained relatively costly and economically unattractive to the toy and hobby markets.
In addition, where such stringed instruments have used linearly spaced fingering along a board similar to a fret board in a conventional guitar, the fingering has employed the use of separate mechanical switches or push-buttons, U.S. Pat. No. 3,555,166, or has employed a continuous resistive element to obtain fret-like fingering, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,624,583, and 3,699,492. In addition, such electronic instruments have involved wave shaping or tone control which have been frequency dependent. In other words, the amplitude of the tone as affected by the tone control is dependent upon the frequency or the principal frequency of the tone. Finally, addition of enhanced musical effects such as glissando, vibrato, timbrato, tremolo and others have been achieveable only at high cost and complexity. Therefore, what is needed is a simple, inexpensive electronic instrument which will simulate conventional fret board fingering, which incorporates a tone control circuit which shall be substantially frequency independent, and which can be modified to incorporate complex and sophisticated musical qualities.